Go pick some pumpkins, they said. It will be fun, they said.

A long time ago on Shadow Island, Nico could remember when he was always celebrating autumn’s festivities. In fact, he would say that it was his favorite time of the year. Of course, Halloween was an important part of those memories, but he could vividly remember raking up leaves and then tossing himself into them, sometimes sorting them leaves by shape and color. He could recall picking apples and then dipping them in caramel, making homemade apple cider, and sharing it with his neighbors. Sometimes he’d go on hayrides and other times he’d be driving the wagon that carried people. He could remember the taste and chill of the wind and how its dryness made his throat scratchy and nose runny, and he could remember walking home with his parents, grandmother, and little brother as they came back from stomping on grapes to make wine. On that part of Shadow Island, everything was well. But now, eight years later, this was obviously no longer the case. Mom and Dad’s backs weren’t facing him anymore, dimly lit in the lantern-light, Grandma wasn’t picking the leaves that fell out of his hair, and Milo wasn’t complaining in his ear about how cold it was. In fact, he spent every year since then working some odd job, alone. He didn’t know how to celebrate the season without them, so he always found someplace or some person who’d hire him to work in autumn festivals instead.

This year wasn’t any different. Pumpkin farmers all over the country were hiring in anticipation for the business they’d be having when people came pumpkin picking for the holidays. Surprisingly, Hosenka was included as well, despite having such little space for farming of any kind, so that’s where Nico was currently being employed.

He was told to be of general assistance to the people who came to pick pumpkins—helping people through the patch, answering questions, advertising other events the farmers were hosting—that kind of stuff. He was a people-person and was the type who could tolerate any sort of weather, even wearing shorts when it was cool out, so this job was something that seems to be made for him.

“Hmm. I guess I got a little lost, huh?” Nico said matter-of-factly, stopping and looking around to find that he was by himself. Nico had been working this job for many days already, but it was the first time he had found himself in the depths of the pumpkin patches all alone. He had two particularly large pumpkins—one tucked between each arm. One way or another, he had ended up helping pick pumpkins with an elderly couple and their grandchildren. One pumpkin turned to two, and he’d meandered through the patch distracted with an eagerness to help until he was no longer with the family he was helping. It was a harmless mistake and there would surely be no trouble in returning if he retraced his steps or followed the lights in the distance. There was a moment of silence after he commented on his situation, but soon the returned to his usual self, dripping with determination and some amount of passion. “Ahhh! That Granny and those kids must be waiting for me to bring back the biggest pumpkins! I CAN’T LEAVE THEM HANGING!”

This was the plan, but things hardly ever go according to plan, right? As it turns out, Nico was not the only person finding themselves in the deeper end of the pumpkin patch. Someone—something approached, and whatever it was, it didn’t feel good. He didn’t see anything and he couldn’t smell anything either. Nico hadn’t known what was approaching but something deep within him, some instinctual instructed him to keep his guard up. To heighten his senses and brace himself for that something. He looked and looked but couldn’t lay his eyes upon a single thing! Where was it? What was it? His gaze on the patch was hard and sharp, but he didn’t feel prepared for what happened next. The change in scenery was abrupt and instantaneous. There was nothing he could do to stop himself from being engulfed in soft, pulsating black.

“Agh!” grunted Nico, feeling something peck him. He dropped his pumpkins to lunge at whatever he pecked him, feeling it launch away when his fist struck it. He’d then drop the other pumpkin so that both arms could cross over his face to protect it, peeking through the small gaps to stare into the darkness. “What is this?!” It was clear that whatever swarmed over him was not a cloud of darkness, but a mass of crows or some other blackbird, and he wasn’t the only one caught in its frenzy. Someone else was there—he just felt it! He couldn’t them or hear them in the noise of wings flapping and crows cawing, but they might need help! It wouldn’t be unlikely for it to be a child who wandered away from the group just like he did, and surely they were not equipped with the skills to fend off such a frenzied flock. He had to do something. . .!

His arm slowly began to be embellished with small cuts, something their beaks and talons finding their ways through the gaps of his mediocre guard to scratch his face, but he didn’t falter, only winced in an attempt to protect his eyes. “Hello?! Are you okay?!” Nico called out into the mass, hoping for an answer!

But instead of an answer, his toes grazed the blade of a sword. It was loosely planted in the soil in front of him, but he knew that it wasn’t there before. Someone had tossed it or thrown or placed it there, but who? Was it the person in the frenzy of blackbirds too? Regardless, after a brief moment of contemplating its location, he seized it with both hands and swung it into the flock several times as soon as he did. Several birds plummeted to the ground lifelessly, and soon the remaining blackbirds fluttered away and out of immediate danger. He had no experience in swordsmanship, but he’d take a blade over his fists any day under these circumstances!

When the black mass dissipated into a clear, grey sky, Nico could see clearly now. There was no sense of panic or fright or even frustration on his countenance, but an authentic sense of worry in watching the blackbirds fly away.

Nico sighed and scratched the back of his scalp. There were several black feathers sticking out of his brown hair. “What was that all about?” he said to no one in particular, looking at the pumpkins he dropped. They were relatively unscathed, thankfully, and his soft, friendly smile returned to his face. “They’re okay!” thought Nico. Unfortunately, the closure was extremely short-lived. The moment the word “okay” left his lips, he was abruptly reminded of the other person who was there with him. Now that he could see, he could finally find them!

“HEY! Are you o—” Luckily, they stuck out like a sore thumb. It was a young woman who looked no more of a mess than he did, but she looked far more on edge than Nico could ever be. He was so surprised by her bloodlust that he paused mid-sentence, took a moment to behold her appearance, and then recontinued in a far quieter, somewhat more puzzled tone of voice. “—kay. . .?”

It made sense that she would be on edge like this, Nico supposed. Not everyone had the security of being level-headed during that sort of frenzy, and not everyone had the heart to smile so authenticly after such an incident as he could. He realized this, and the sunny, toothy smile returned to his face once more. He approached her with hesitation. “That was pretty scary, huh? Want to walk back together? It’s probably safer that way, and I think this is your sword, too!” Nico queried kindly, giving her a mild thumbs-up. But even then, their interactions were shortlived, for some greater beast had other plans for them.

THUD!

Something enormous landed in front of them, and it was on an entirely different level from the flock of frenzied blackbirds from just now. It was a bipedal beast with the face, feet, and hands of a crow, but a body similar to that of a bodybuilding human. All of its muscles were bulging and its torso was the largest thing on its figure. It screamed the most awful, ear-shattering scream, and suddenly all of the friendliness in Nico’s complexion vanished and hardened. He was glaring at it with malice unlike him and so different from the sunniness from before, and all of it appearing in an instant, like the unobservable quickness of darkness settling into a room after the lights are flicked off. It was unsettling.

He didn’t say anything, and the beast attacked first. It was a standard punch followed by one of its ear-piercing screams, but it was greeted with the blade in its entirety. Nico hadn’t bothered to parry the fist or block it, but hold it up and let the fist swallow its metal in completion. The instead it did, he twisted it within the wound, repositioning it before using all of his strength to rip it out in a single upward motion, almost slicing the entire hand in half. If not for his amateur swordsmanship, the hand would’ve been sliced completely. Instead, he compensated the mediocre skill for the number of his strikes, stabbing and piercing the beast until it had been downed. But even after death, he kept on descending the blade upon face and chest until the blade had broke, murmuring things like “die” and “disgusting” under his breath like some dark recital. When the felt the blade crack, his hardened, unchanging expression softened back to normal, and the light returned to his blank, dead eyes.

Nico looked back at the woman, some strange, black liquid that could only be labeled as blood smeared across his hands and face. Nico smiled kindly again and gave her another thumbs-up. “You okay?” he continued smiling until an innocent and cute kind of apprehension settled on his eyebrows and eyes again, frowning a bewildered frown as he looked over the corpse he was standing on, “I wonder what’s happening. I hope everyone else is okay. . . we really need to get back, after all! There’s no telling what it’s looking like over by the farm!”

After realizing the gravity of the situation, Nico hopped off the corpse after pulling the blade from the beast, looking at it sympathetically before breaking into a mild panic. “Ahhh! This was your sword, right?! I’m sorry! I think I cracked it! I’ll fix it once this is all over, I promise!”